Tempo was pleased with herself.
Not only had she managed to get into the Anexartan server system without being seen, she’d managed to get the tracker virus uploaded, and on top of that, she’d placed locational and sound trackers on the handful of staff that were there, meaning that if they did manage to find the virus, she would know about it. She had also placed some false evidence in case they did find the virus, making one of the workers there a scapegoat. Now all she needed to do was get out and disappear off into the night.
The only problem was, Tempo was sure there was someone else around. Not any stupid Acolytes of Stasis. Someone different. Or rather, something.
She’d not seen it, only caught glimpses of lingering shadows. But she heard it. Low growls. With some sort of pattern. Whether it was a language she was hearing, Tempo wasn’t sure, but whatever she was dealing with was clearly smart, making her nervous before going in for the kill. Or whatever it planned to do.
Tempo climbed up onto a window ledge. Annoyingly, these windows, high up on the metal walls, couldn’t be opened, but at least from up there, she could observe and maybe catch this being.
After a good couple of minutes though, nothing moved. Clearly, this thing knew she was waiting and watching. Either way, it was probably better for her to get out of there. The only creatures that could have been there with her were either the Anexartan staff or perhaps some sort of guard animal. The Anexartitai needed their pets, they were small and unwieldy on their own, barely a meter in height and often covered in stupidly heavy armour.
Leaping back down to ground level, Tempo listened for footsteps. The Anexartan staff had been alerted. They weren’t acting completely alert, but they’d gathered closer together. Tempo was sure she heard someone whisper about a guard being dead. That wasn’t her. This was a strictly no killing mission, even if the beings behind this server system had been plotting to sift through data and look for dissenters and traitors, to potentially capture and kill them. As commanded by the Whenvern, Tempo’s mission here was to siphon off this information so they could recruit these beings.
A sizzling sound echoed throughout the building. The distinctive sound of Anexartan ranged weaponry. The staff were all now panicking and fleeing their positions. Among their cries and screams, Tempo picked out one word: Veth.
Drawing her blade and pistol, Tempo inched towards the exit in the far corner of the server room. The door was open, and laying in its way was an empty husk of Anexartan armour – the rest of their body had dissolved into nothingness, as dead Anexartans tended to do. Whether they would respawn or not, she didn’t know.
Another Anexartan caught her unaware. They just stood there, staring blankly at the Temmar.
“You… You…”
Tempo sighed, switched her pistol to ‘stun’ and shot the Anexartan. Their body flew backwards, crashing into another Anexartan who had come to see what all the commotion was. The first one fell unconscious, but the second one cried loudly.
“You led it here! It will kill us all?”
“What is it?” Tempo asked, muffling her voice and pointing her gun at the Anexartan, towering over the cowering humanoid.
“The Veth Prime! We all knew there would be one, when Our Lord Stasis chose his new champion!”
The Anexartan struggled to get up, but before he could run, Tempo shot him, knocking him out. She needed to get out of here.
Behind her, something exploded. Servers. All going boom. That was bad. The Whenvern wanted this data, he didn’t want it all destroyed! Worse, there was something in the fire, walking towards her. Again, Tempo drew her pistol, but she wasn’t taking any chances. She set it to lethal mode, ready to shoot at whatever this thing was. Behind her, more Anexartitai had appeared.
“Don’t even try…” the creature growled.
Tempo could finally see what it was. Some sort of small, Panvok being. Maybe 2m tall? Shorter than she was though. Rings of almost golden light ran up its body, while plates of yellow armour covered the important areas. Everything else was coated in a strange, shadowy mass that made Tempo feel uneasy.
“What do you want?” Tempo almost stuttered.
“Freedom of belief, preservation of the Cycle. This place gets in the way of that. Thank you for doing the hard work, Tempo.”
The creature smiled, then charged towards her. Tempo panicked, emptying her entire clip into the beast. But it barely flinched. If anything it seemed to just laugh. Its shadowy claws wrapped around her arms and threw Tempo into the Anexartans behind her, before seemingly disappearing into the shadows.
Terrified, Tempo struggled to her feet and ran to the exit, pushing past fallen Anexartitai as she did so. She picked just the right moment to escape, as the building collapsed in on itself, engulfed in flames and lost opportunities. In the distance, sirens could be heard, most likely in response to the fire.
All Tempo could do now was report back to the Whenvern with the bad news. Maybe His Lordship knew of a way to defeat that horrible creature…